Search results (tags) for: "diy"

Shop Makeover Series: Pimp Your Shop for 2009

2008-11-21T14:34:00Z

This installment of the Etsy Shop Makeover Series brings you to an important step: now that your shop is fit for public consumption, you gotta spread the word! Daniellexo gives you some tips on social networking and grassroots marketing. (Note: This post was originally published on January 28, 2008, but we've updated and revamped it for the coming year!)

I started on Etsy with blurry pictures and no idea how to run a successful shop. It took a year to make it to the now extinct Top Sellers list, but I did it. I spent roughly 10 hours a day learning about photography, d.i.y. marketing, the right time to list and renew and the other ins and outs of a successful Etsy shop. My first boost of sales came when I was mentioned in a rather popular blog. How did this happen? Not by accident. It took a lot of work. Read on to hear my formula for pimping your shop and getting sales.

Social Networking

Above: NeaWear tastefully "pimps" her shop on Facebook

Sure, you can spend a $1,000 on a tiny, tiny magazine ad. But, unfortunately, you can't click a magazine ad. I'm not saying they aren't good for building a brand, but it takes a lot of work to get a shopper from a magazine to their computer and then to your Etsy shop. I would work on your online presence instead if you are just starting out.

Where to start? First make sure your shop is focused. You need a target market; if you have a shop that's all over the map it will much harder to find your customers. Stick to a demographic, ie. teenage girls, new mothers or hipsters. Of course you can welcome all buyers, but it's easier to market with someone specific in mind.

Now what? Surf around and get familiar with the sites I link to in the rest of this article. Which ones look like the most fun to you? Sign up for those and test them out! When signing up, I suggest using your Etsy username and keeping all your accounts cohesive. You'll be easier to find that way. Now have a look at how much time you have per week. If you have a few extra hours a week, then focus on one or two social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.

Now don't get overwhelmed. Check out these sites and see which ones look the best for your market. It's better to have a few accounts on these sites and stake your own little area of the site instead of spreading yourself too thin. You want to build up your online presence with these tools. Make your accounts attractive to people browsing. The trick is to keep it fun, for you and your followers! Don't just post photos of your products that people can already find in your Etsy shop. Make sure you show them a bit about the maker behind the curtain; describe your process, your studio, your favorites, etc. Talk up your Etsy buddies too — share the love!

Social Networking Sites:
Facebook
Myspace
Virb
Twitter

Social Shopping & Bookmarking

Above: TomokoTahara socially shops on ThisNext, mixing her items with other great finds!

Sharing your picks with others through accounts on social shopping and bookmarking sites can be a great way to promote buying handmade. Make sure you mix promoting your own work with other great finds! Link to your accounts on your blog and in your shop profile.

Social Shopping Sites:

ThisNext
Stylehive
Stylefeeder
Kaboodle
Wishpot
Zebo

Social Bookmarking Sites:
Digg
Squidoo
StumbleUpon
Wists
Magnolia
del.icio.us

Photo Sharing

Above: mLee uses Flickr like a photo journal. I love how her Flickr account is organized into sets.

Flickr is a great site for telling your story through photos. Buyers can start to connect with the maker this way. Showing your family life, process, studios, pets, and more can remind your buyers and friends that there is a real artist behind the work in your Etsy shop! This gives your work an intrinsic value and authenticity you just can't get with a mass produced item!

Blogging

Above: the {NewNew} Team all works together to maintain their well read blog. If you don't have time to regularly update your own blog, sharing the workload by creating a Team blog is a great idea!

A blog is an online journal that your readers can subscribe to in order to learn more about your work, process and life. I would recommend Blogger.com to get started. It's pretty easy to set up. Just like the social networking sites, you want to make your blog interesting and fun. Show your readers a bit about your life, your process, things you've purchased, places you've been, etc. Join the Etsy blog ring once you get going! I started a shopping blog, Gold School. I still have about 50 readers a day. I show them items I like that are reasonably priced (90% Etsy items by the way). I also have a link in my blog to my Etsy shop. That way, my faithful readers might think, "Wow. I like this gal's taste! I wonder what she makes?"

Above: PearsonMaron's Twitter always makes me smile!

Don't have time for blogging? How about micro-blogging? Twitter.com asks one question: 'What are you doing?' Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web. You can follow your contacts and gather followers. It's fun and addicting! Make sure you aren't just blogging about your work though — like usual, keep it interesting and fun! (Like PearsonMaron's tweets above!)

More sites to check out:

Niche Networking:
Ravelry (knit & crochet)
Designs To Love
DeviantArt (fine art)
Craftster.org (crafting)
DIYscene (D.I.Y. & alternative crafting)
BurdaStyle (sewing)

Skill Sharing:
Instructibles
Thingiverse

Video:
YouTube
Vimeo
Blip

Now get down a little routine.
Perhaps when you wake up you take a few pictures and upload them to Flickr. Then you blog about your strange dreams. Then you add a new item to Etsy and send it to all your social shopping sites. (Tip: Send your favorites to these social shopping and bookmarking sites too! If it's obvious you are just trying to pimp yourself people won't come back to see what else you've added.) Before bed work on your Myspace, perhaps.

From here you'll start collecting like minded social shoppers and perhaps you've bumped into a few blogs you like. Good! Bookmark those. You're going to need them. Find a day to yourself. Lock yourself up with some coffee and get motivated. Today you're going to get into a blog! It's cold-calling time.

I'm not going to list any blogs here for fear of 1,000 Etsy sellers contacting the same ones over and over. The trick is to find the blogs your potential shoppers read. Keep your target market in mind. Start with the smaller ones to build up your confidence. Find the bloggers email and really inspect it. What do they value most in the items they feature? How can you pitch your items in a way that would interest them and their readers? Make each email personal and specific to the blog you are writing to. Bloggers can smell a mass email a mile away. And it's not a nice smell. Oh, one more thing: don't just send them a link to your shop. Find the BEST item in your shop (and make sure its a nice clear photograph). Include a little something interesting about this item, how you made it, or about yourself. Make it easy for the blogger if they did choose to blog about your work. Send out as many of these are you can. If you don't get a response or only get one or two do not take it personally. Shopping bloggers get tons of unsolicited items sent to them. Start collecting another set of blogs to write to and have another stab at it.

Here's a sample letter:

Dear Gold School Creator,

I've been reading your blog for a few weeks now and I really love your finds (especially the weiner dog special last week!). They are all really fresh (and cheap)!

I'm writing because I think my work would interest your readers. Here's a link to my most popular item. I started making these when I broke my leg last summer and was immobile. I was so bored watching soaps all day so I decided to start embroidering these Soap Star Hankies.

Thanks for your blog and for supporting independant artist like me!

Happy Holidays,

Sally the Soap Star Hanky Maker

Keep these emails short, sweet, personalized and fun.

Getting Seen on Etsy

Above: ThePeachTree makes some gorgeous Front Page worthy Treasuries. And when these happen to land on the Front Page of Etsy, a link to her shop (just above the items) also gets a little bit of Front Page action!

Here are a few ways to pimp your shop on Etsy:

Make a treasury. I know it's not always easy getting a treasury, but try anyway. Set a timer for the next time a batch of them are about to expire and POUNCE! Keep your favorite items bookmarked and try to create a visually pleasing mix of goods. If you make a great treasury people will be interested in what you are doing in your own shop!
Renew. If you have the budget to renew once or twice a day (or more if you have lots of items in your shop) then I would really suggest it. It keeps you fresh in your category and puts you back in the Time Machine. Try different time of the day as well — I used to wake up in the middle of the night to renew!
Use your shop name as a tag in your item listings. That way if someone comes to the site and searches for you but mistakenly doesn't change the search drop-down menu to "seller" — your work will still pop up. Also use your shop name in your listings. The more the name of your shop is used on the internet, the more likely it is to come up in a web search.
Forums. Be helpful on the forums. Sure you can also post in the promotions section but you are more likely to be seen in Site Help giving some advice to a newbie. And make sure your avatar is interesting and clear so people will want to check out your shop!
Pitch an article to the Storque here. What are you the most passionate about? Can you write about your process? About your local craft scene? A review on a great sewing machine you just purchased? Let the Storque editors know why this would be a great article, who would be interested in it and why you should be the one to write it.
Comment on Storque articles that you really like. I'm not suggesting to comment on every article. Just those that really call to you. Leave a thoughtful comment and others will see your avatar and might just have a peek at your shop!
Attend Virtual Labs events. They are fun and informative (ok maybe I am a little biased). But they are a great place to connect with the Etsy community and get seen as an active member.
Join an Etsy Team. Of course, don't just join a Team to promote yourself. Join one to bond with other Etsy members and to help each other promote your work and Etsy together!

Troubleshooting

So you've done all this and aren't getting the kind of response you would like? Here are a few things you can do now:

Hire a photographer. This could even be someone who is technically savvy in your family that has a nice camera. Get them to take some pictures for you and give you some tips on working with your own digital camera.
Attend the Etsy Labs critiques and workshops. (Usually every Wednesday and Friday — see the Storque's Online Workshops featured column for times.) You can really pick up some great tips at the critiques and workshops.
Ask a seasoned shopper for advice. Don't be too shy or sensitive! Ask them for their most honest opinion.
Try something new! Keep your shop fresh and dip into another category. Perhaps you'll find a technique or craft you may like even more. Think about a niche or need that may not be met yet on Etsy.

Whew. I hope that helps you and your shop in 2009. If you have any further suggestions for marketing your shop, let everyone know by commenting below! For further questions about selling, check out The Etsy Seller Handbook and the Shop Makeover Series.

Cannibal Pumpkin: A Halloween How-To

2008-10-29T19:09:00Z

Halloween is day after tomorrow — you better get carving! Not enough gruesome pumpkin eye candy for your Halloween baskets? Not to worry! Tom Nardone, crafty author of Extreme Pumpkins has a few more tricks (and treats) up his sleeve.

Life requires bravery; if you're timid, the cannibals will eat you for sure. To illustrate this point, each year I buy a giant pumpkin and feed other pumpkins to it. A ruthless jack-o'-lantern munching on the flesh of its own kind really frightens all the sweater-vest types. Here's how you can scare your neighbors, too. You can follow along below or download the pdf file here.

Tom with a few of his pumpkin pals.

Get inspired to get extreme! Buy the book here.

And his other book here!

Pumpkin season is popular here on Etsy. Don't forget to taste the Flavors of Fall, or bask in autumns favorite color, Orange, Beautiful Orange. Did Halloween sneak up on you this year? There's still time to put together a killer costume! Oh, and don't worry about what to bring to that party on Friday, we've got some spooky cupcakes that are sure to cause a scream or two.

More pumpkin treasures can be found in the related items below. Seach Etsy for all types of handmade pumpkin items!

Update: Faythe Levine's Handmade Nation

2008-10-29T11:48:00Z

We at Etsy are very excited about Faythe Levine's forthcoming documentary, Handmade Nation; so excited, in fact, that we want to share the clips as they become available! (Such as the amazing stop motion opening sequence shown above.)

Not familiar with Handmade Nation? Here's the gist: director Faythe Levine crossed the country to interview hundreds of artisans and crafters to talk about why and what of making things means to them. The resulting film has produced excitement amongst crafters, as it's a handmade production of its own.

Living in Seattle during the punk DIY music scene in the early nineties, Faythe Levine was fully enthralled by the do-it-yourself ethos. Self-publish, produce, reuse, collaborate, indie labels, zines, communal living, art collectives: she's done it all. In 2003 she looked around and saw a powerful and inspiring movement happening within the craft scene. A "new wave" as she calls it, was emerging with energy and inspiration fueled by a desire to embolden communities of makers and reinvent traditional models of crafting.

Check out the trailer for the documentary below! Very inspiring...

For more posts on Faythe Levine and Handmade Nation, check out our previous coverage.

Etsy Finds: Gifts, Got the Notion(s)?

2008-10-20T09:31:00Z

It's that time of year where we start thinking about the holidays, and if you're getting this email, I'm going to take a chance and bet that you've got a crafty side or know someone that's a craftionista! Today's Finds are highlights from our Crafters Gift Guide, where you can find a unique gift for your crafty friend, or stock up on supplies for making all your own gifts this year!

Watermelon Pincushion

This pincushion is sure to be a stunner to any seamstress. By loveforever, $20.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

Old Brass Numbers

What's your favorite number? Spruce up any project with these salvaged brass numbers, or give them to your friend the jewelry designer... She'll thank you, trust me. By onceloved, $10.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

Knitwit Bangle - Orange/White Stripe

We all know someone who knits. This year let them know you appreciate thier passion with this knitting needle bracelet By LianaKabel, $30.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

yellow yarn jar

Back to that knitter we all know: Check out this cool jar that organizes a ball of yarn while you knit! By PotterB, $15.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

Shake n Bake Custom set - home made encaustic wax

Ever painted with beeswax? Why not try your hand at it? You can also wow your painter friend with handmade encaustic paints. By newbyart, $18.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

Knit - 5 x 5 print

Get a little nostalgic with this needle print; it would look great in your foyer. By nonsuch, $8.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

Scrabble Ring - Make

Any creative type would appreciate this MAKE ring: let them know you care for only $12! By foundandmade.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

Cotton Blossom Linen Pin Cushion

Need a gift for your crafty sweetie? This romantic colored pincushion is sure to do the trick. By chetanddot, $9.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

Purple Wee Sewing Machine

Got a little artist or crafter in training? They'll be sure to light up when you give them this wooden sewing machine toy. By woodmouse, $15.

View item | View Shop | Add to Etsy Favorites

Looking for more Etsy Finds? Try these links:

Gift Guides | Showcase | Trends

Need a daily fix of Etsy Finds? Sign up for the Etsy Finds e-mail! Conveniently delivered to your inbox!

Recycled Glove How-to: Make a Chipmunk Softie

2008-10-17T15:34:00Z

Gloves (like socks), while born to be part of a pair, often end their days in lonely solitude, separated from their mates by the forces of the universe that conspire at every turn to pull them apart. Alone, they sadly serve little purpose (aside from the occasional show biz appearance for only the most sparkling among them), and are left to languish in the backs of a drawers and bottoms of closets — that is, if they're not disposed of all together. Ah... but it's a new day. Crafter and author Miyako Kanamori has a plan and she's ready to share it!

With her book, Happy Gloves: Charming Softy Friends Made from Colorful Gloves, she's given hopelessly single gloves a new lease on life as cozy companions. In her able hands, one glove's worth of material becomes an elephant, a penguin, a donkey, a bunny — you name it — all set free to romp and play together. (Can't you just hear the claps of cheer?)

Try your hands at this chipmunk to start your very own menagerie of recycled glove critters. Download complete instructions here or follow along below.

Thanks to the Penguin Group for sharing this project from Happy Gloves.

Author Miyako Kanamori is a crafter who lives in Tokyo. She is also the author of Sock and Glove. You can see more of her work at her website: bananawani.org/nuiguroom.

For more cute critters made from recycled materials, search "Recycled Softie". Some examples plus a few other autumn-inspired creations can be seen in the related items below.

DIY Halloween Contest '08

2008-10-07T17:43:00Z

Whether you're a costume creator, spooky chef, decorating diva or gadget whiz... Halloween lovers: it's time to show off your skills!

Instructables has teamed up with Etsy, PopSci, MAKE, Craft, Core77, Threadbanger, IndyMogul, Hack n Mod, Toolmonger, Lion Brand Yarn, Plaid, Quirk Books, Singer, American Science & Surplus, Think Geek, and Ponoko to bring you a contest worthy of your creations! See complete details here.

There are lots of contest categories to choose from and lots of ways to enter!
- Post your Instructables, photo slideshows, or videos on Instructables.
- Enter individual photos and videos through the diyhalloween08 flickr group and YouTube group.
- List your finished contest entries on Etsy. Tag your item with "HalloweenCon08" for possible inclusion in the featured Halloween Gift Guide. Don't have an Etsy shop? Sign up for one here.

Key Contest Dates:
CONTEST STARTS: Nov 5, 2007 (Yes, that's 2007; anyone that entered projects to Instructables after last Halloween is eligible.)
ENTRY DEADLINE: Nov 9, 2008
VOTING STARTS: Nov 10, 2008
VOTING ENDS: Nov 16, 2008
JUDGING STARTS: Nov 17, 2008
JUDGING ENDS: Nov 24, 2008

Prizes:
Many prizes! Everything from craft supplies, cool tools and books to shopping sprees and more. So many prizes! More info will be posted here.

Instant treat:
Contest partner Quirk Books is offering a 25% discount for Storque readers! Just type "ETSY" at checkout when asked for a discount code.

For more Halloween fun, check out these Halloween posts on the Storque.

You should also take a look at the Halloween Gift Guide for decorating ideas, costumes and all sorts of Halloween-themed items.

Handmade Portraits: Maya Hayuk

2008-08-15T11:50:00Z

(MATURE content in the video: if you're watching this with your child, be prepared to answer some questions about female body parts.)

MP4 | Youtube | Blip.tv | Subscribe in iTunes

(Music credit: Barry London, The And Group, Hold Me)

Muralist, photographer, painter, music video creator... Maya Hayuk prefers to simply call herself an artist, because under that moniker she has the freedom to work in whatever medium she wants at any given time.

Growing up in Baltimore, Maya learned the art of traditional Ukrainian handicrafts from her family. Her parents, both professors—one geography, one psychology—traveled extensively with the family during her childhood and bought Maya a camera at an early age to document their adventures. In high school she started shooting bands and getting attention for her work. After attending Massachusetts College of Art's SIM (Studio for Interrelated Media) program, Maya became interested in environmental art, wherein murals work in collaboration with the surrounding architecture, as well as the community who lives with the art long afterward. Maya also studied comparative religion, which has infused all of her work with a spiritual aspect ever since.

Maya has painted murals around the world, and her work has been featured in magazines, album covers and ads campaigns. Her improvised style and bright colors seem to be part of a new resurgence in psych-folk art that is pinned to a higher consciousness: one that inspires good vibes. Maya says that with her murals, "the narrative can be as simple as 'I like those colors'" and it doesn't have to go deeper than that with her audience. Maya's work has become something more than a precise painting on a wall. It's a part of people's lives, and a living thing that people interact with and tell stories about.

Last spring Maya headed to Braddock, PA to work with Braddock Active Arts organization to help revitalize a once thriving steel mill town, now part of the forgotten post-industrial landscape of America. Sixteen different artists from all over the world gathered to contribute environmental art that ranged from the functional to the inspirational. With the help of the teens from the Braddock Youth Project, these artists added a little life and hope to this depressed town.

Although Maya makes part of her income from licensing her imagery and painting murals, her bread and butter comes from selling rock posters, t-shirts and books of her designs. Maya's work will be featured at the upcoming Democratic National Convention (Bright Future, pictured below) and at the Mahan Gallery in Columbus, Ohio this fall.

Watch our other Handmade Video Portraits and subscribe to our Youtube Channel!

See Maya's website for more of her work: www.mayahayuk.com

How to Make a Knitted Postcard with Knitknit in the Etsy Labs

2008-08-04T15:28:00Z

July's live How-To Month was a smashing success! While we had some Etsy royalty here at the labs we took the opportunity to make videos with them. In this second video, the lovely Nguyen Le, aka Knitknit teaches how to make knitted post cards. If you are teaching yourself how to knit, you will love this video. This is also a great way to use your knitted test swatches to make a special something to send to someone!

MP4 | Blip.tv | Youtube | Subscribe in iTunes

We hope you love these quick, fun videos and craft along with us! For this project you will need the following supplies:

Two types of bulky yarn
Hole punch
Scissors
Size 10 knitting needles
Tapestry needle
4" x 6" postcard material

Looking for more Etsy Labs how-tos? Check out what we've been up to!

Art Star Craft Bazaar: Philly DIY

2008-07-17T16:13:00Z

The Art Star Craft Bazaar, is an annual event that finished its fifth year this past May. The event was well documented by Street Talkin', Philidelphia's self-proclaimed Internet video channel.

More about Art Star via their site:

Art Star is a gallery and boutique located in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. We exhibit and sell handmade work and limited edition products by emerging artists across the globe. Hailed by Philadelphia Magazine as the “the city's first cutting-edge craft shop," we strive to carry work that is innovative and superbly crafted. We have also created and continue to support a growing network of burgeoning artists. Our exhibitions rotate every 6 weeks and our boutique offers shoppers everything from handmade clothes, jewelry and accessories to dolls, ceramics and prints.

More about the Art Star Craft Bazaar:

In 2003, recent Tyler School of Art grads Erin Waxman (BFA, ’99) and Megan Brewster (BFA, ’00) were searching for places to show and sell their work. They quickly realized that the options were few and far between. They decided to create a new venue for themselves and like-minded-artists in Philadelphia and the Art Star Craft Bazaar was conceived; an open-air market, where emerging artists & crafters could sell their wares to the public. Twenty vendors were chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis and the event was held at The First Unitarian Church over the course of a few weekends that summer. During the show, Megan and Erin met many talented artists who were all looking for viable venues for their work.

Looking for more content related to Philadelphia? Check out our past coverage...

Handmade Music Night 2008.07.08

2008-07-08T11:22:00Z

Handmade Music Night at the Etsy Labs is back on Tuesday July, 8th 2008! Brought to you by the usual suspects Etsy, Make Magazine, and Create Digital Music, this mid-summer Handmade Music Night is bound to be a #1 stunner! Here's a video about making your own instruments that features a past iteration of this event:

TUESDAY, TUESDAY, TUESDAY: artists, crafters, makers, musicians, and hackers unite to bedazzle you with chiptune gaming systems for music, strange alternative MIDI controllers and sound-mangling custom software, repurposed vintage synthesizer chips made famous by the Commodore 64, digital visuals, a musical Nintendo Wii balance board, wireless sensing controllers, and much much more! Come on down and check out this F-R-E-E community event, right here in Brooklyn at the Etsy Labs space.

If you have an awesome instrument that you made and would like to share, feel free to bring it on down and share in the community fun, if not just bring yourself and enjoy the festivities!

Handmade Music Night
7/8/08 - 7pm
Etsy Labs
325 Gold St., 3rd floor
Brooklyn, NY

Map

See our past coverage of these musical evenings.

Also, if you are in the Brooklyn area and want to learn to make your own guitar, be sure to sign up soon for this class taught by Ranjit of Handmade Music Night.

Etsy in Action: Upcoming Events July 4-July 11

2008-07-03T12:54:00Z

So many great handmade events on the horizon, so little time...

Chicago, IL: July 10

For all of you in the Chicago area, the upcoming DIY Style Party is not to be missed! This sew-in will be held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare-Rosemont. Join in the fun and create your own DIY fashions at the DIY Style design labs and stitch stations equipped with all the supplies. DIY Style gurus will be on hand to guide you through such projects as t-shirt surgery, sewing underwear, making an eco-friendly tote bag, and giving your jeans a distressed look. Be sure to visit the local Etsy sellers on hand and before you go, check out The American Sewing Guild's National Convention, also at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The ASG Marketplace opens its doors at 7:00pm. Stock up on the coolest sewing tools, patterns, and gadgets around!

Golden, CO: Call for Entries

If you live in Colorado, it's time to take off your sunglasses and start thinking about the winter holidays. Foothills Art Center, in Golden, Colorado, is looking for talented new artists to join their annual Holiday Market. They are now offering a 10% discount on the application fee for all Etsy artists! The market fills Foothills with unique arts and fine crafts for gift-giving. Admission to HART is free to the public and special programming helps attract over 10,000 shoppers! Works by nearly 200 Colorado artists will be displayed in a stunning holiday setting. If you'd like to apply to have your work in the Holiday Market, download the prospectus and mail it in by the July 31 deadline.

Brooklyn, NY: July 8

Create Digital Music, Etsy, and MAKE join forces once again to bring to life another Handmade Music Night at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn (325 Gold St, 3rd floor, Brooklyn). Join us Tuesday, July 8 at 7pm for an evening of Chiptune game-music wireless sensor driven sound, Wii balance board instrumentation, custom software for sound-mutation, and much more! Learn more details about this month's Handmade Music Night here.

See our previous Etsy in Action posts.

Making Stencil and Yam Prints with Lotta Jansdotter

2008-06-12T17:49:00Z

Lotta Jansdotter just came out with a book about printing called Lotta Prints. I caught up with her at her Brooklyn studio and she showed me some tips and tricks for using stencils and yams to make prints!

MP4 | Blip.tv | Youtube | Howcast | Subscribe in iTunes

Lotta has created a bunch of stencils that you can rip out of her book and use right away or you can make up your own!

If you've got any yams or potatoes around, you can use them to make prints, too! Upload photos to flickr and post the links in the comments below.

Lotta is having a printmaking workshop this Friday, June 13. If you're in the NYC area, check it out!

Get to know Lotta better with this video we made with her last fall.

Learning How to Make a Rag Rug: a How-To

2008-06-05T18:11:00Z

I love rag rugs. I grew up with a beautiful rag rug carpet that had been made out of a variety of red, brown and black wool rags. I've been daydreaming of getting a one just like that, but there just are not that many big rag rugs out there for sale in the world.

In researching rag rugs, I found this great six part series on Youtube that shows how easily these can be made.

Rag rugs are great because they're usually pretty thick, so they are really comfortable to sit on, do stretches or just lay on while watching a movie. They just feel really nice to walk on, too.

Consider making your own rag rug, and if you get hooked, I'd love to see more of these for sale on Etsy!

News From the Craft + Style Blogosphere: June 5, 2008

2008-06-05T15:35:00Z

June! It's here! Crazy town!

In celebration of summer, I went kind of overboard this week. More bang for your buck, more bloggy bits for you to peruse! There are some great diy style tips ahead, lots of quality interiors and some nature photography to boot!

Read on!

Design Sponge posted this gorgeous sneak peak of Chronicle Books design editor Vanessa Dina's beautiful pad. Love that black fireplace! And she's got a killer plate display on her kitchen wall. Very nice.

Continually on-target fashion and style site Refinery29 has just launched their new blog, the Pipeline. It's full of great fashion tidbits, such as this post on harlequin style, entitled "Harlequin Romance." Don't knock the Pierrot look until you've tried it!

Looking for the diy way to get runway looks for less? Bright Young Things has a really rad style section with diy versions of couture looks, like a really expensive Chanel purse reinvented with a garbage bag. (Or in this case, the always classic saddle shoe. Back in vogue, people!) Check it out! [Via Style Bubble]

Wow! This how-to from Martha Stewart Living shows you to how to create this awe-inspiring wall panelling in your home from birch poles and pieces of plywood. The visual effect is pretty stunning. [Via A Cup of Jo]

Another Bright Young Things post! This tribute celebrates the life of Yves Saint Laurent, who passed away this week. He was a true design pioneer, taking "the tuxedo, the chainmail dress, the safari look, the pantsuit revolution, the icy-Belle-du-jour and beyond" to the public eye. Check out the visual retrospective here.

Desire to Inspire highlighted the amazing photography of Denise Bonenti. She's got quite the portolio! Very evocative and with a wide range of themes and styles. Check it out Desire to Inspire's coverage here.

In closing, these slugs are the cutest, most amazing things I've ever seen. One is smiling! (Or, I imagine it's smiling. Whatever, it's cute.) According to National Geographic, these toxic nudibranchs — soft, seagoing slugs — "produce a brilliant defense." Pure amazingness. [Via Never Slap The Gift Donkey]

Seeking more juicy craft + style tidbits? Check out past editions of News From the Craft + Style Blogosphere! And leave any blogs you'd like me to check out in the comments!

Etsy in Action: Upcoming Events

2008-05-28T11:22:00Z

Check out what's next in Etsy-sponsored events...

Mark your calendars! Next Sunday, June 1, from 1-3pm, The Etsy Labs is hosting a free Brooklyn Tee Party! Meet young adult authors Rachel Maude, Lauren Mechling, Emily Gould and Zareen Jaffrey as they share readings from their latest books. Then, get hands-on with a DIY t-shirt reconstruction workshop from the designers of BurdaStyle and Compai.

Bring an old, oversized t-shirt with you to recycle and refashion. We'll show you how! (Fresh out of old tees? Not to worry, we'll have some spares.) Ages 12 and up welcome. Please RSVP to rsvp@etsy.com, as space is limited.

Not in Brooklyn? Join us online in the Library Room of the Virtual Labs, where we'll be broadcasting the event live.

Brought to you by Etsy.com, BurdaStyle.com, Compai, Delacorte Books, Little Brown, and Razorbill.

Hey, vendors! Looking for a new venue to sell at this summer? ...Shoppers: seeking out the lastest in art, healthy edibles, handbags, jewelry, accessories and antiques (...offline, that is)? Check out the Providence Open Market. Located on Westminster Street in the heart of downtown Providence, the Market features a different group of artists every week ensuring that each visit will be unique. Open for business Saturdays, starting May 31st and accepting vendor applications online now!

Saturday, May 31: If you're in the Chicago area, be sure to stop by the Indie Arts Market, showcasing over 30 up-and-coming local artists, selling paintings, jewelry, collages, sculpture, silkscreen prints, letterpress, zines, textiles, stationery and much more!

This one-day event will be held in the heart of Lakeview at Schubas Tavern, 3159 North Southport at the intersection of Southport and Belmont from 11am to 3pm.

See the gallery below for a sampling of Indie Arts Market and Providence Open Market vendors.

Zine Scene

2008-05-23T13:52:00Z

Psst. Hey. What's a zine?

Glad you asked! There are several answers, but the simplest one is: Just about anything you can imagine. Mymy recently posted an introduction to the wonderful world of zines.

Self-published magazines, books, and journals have existed in some form or other for a long time. Since the invention of the printing press, writers and political agitators have printed pamphlets to spread their message. In the early part of the 20th century fanzines written by dedicated science fiction readers came along. During the following few decades, poets like Allen Ginsberg and Anais Nin published their own writing — and their friends' as well — in journals they designed, laid out, and mimeographed or letterpress-printed themselves. Zines as we know them today owe a big debt of gratitude to the no-holds-barred, cut-and-paste publications riot grrrls made during the '90s.

These days the zine scene is worldwide, and despite the rise of digital culture — or maybe because of it — print zines are flourishing. Zinesters are a crafty bunch of writers and artists who love to write as much as they love the feel of something made by hand. It only makes sense that they've found a home on Etsy: Team Zine.

Make Your Own Zine
The beauty of zines is that you can write about — or draw or take pictures of — any subject under the sun. Here are just a few topics we've read about in zines:

food and cooking
gender and sexuality
personal writing
how-to guides
body image
poetry and fiction
all kinds of craftiness
book reviews and film studies
comics and photography
honestly, you name it!

The format and look of zines is just as varied. Some are made of a single sheet of paper, creatively folded; others are more than 100 pages long. You can type up your text and print it out, use a nifty yard-sale typewriter, or write it out by hand. Probably the most common zine construction is cutting and pasting up your text and images by hand, then photocopying, folding, and stapling them into a booklet.

Many zinesters get creative with their printing and binding techniques. Anything that holds the pages together will do: yarn, duct tape, those plastic twist ties that come with a loaf of bread. Longtime zinester brainscan (brainscan.etsy.com) binds some of her zines with dental floss! Artnoose (artnoose.etsy.com) has been producing her zine Ker-Bloom! entirely by letterpress every two months for the last 11 years.

Share Your Zine
Another thing that sets zines apart from ordinary books is the fact that their creators distribute their work themselves. Since the worldwide zine community is friendly, open-minded and energetic, this is a fun part of the process.

Online you can post to a zine-themed message board to announce the publication of your new issue. In person there are zine fests and indie book fairs where you can set up shop at a table and peddle (or trade) your wares. Many independent bookstores, comic book stores, boutiques, and galleries carry zines, too, and more and more public libraries are establishing zine collections. If you've ever thought of making a zine, the time is now!

One last thought: promote your project with small flyers, patches, or buttons. We've yet to meet a zinester who doesn't like a good button.

Further Resources:
Photocopied Heart, a friendly online zine community.

Grrrlzines.net: Tons of interviews with grrrl zinesters around the world.

Broken Pencil: Canada's biggest zines resource and indie culture magazine.

Underground Press: Zine World reviews zines by the dozen.

Read Mymy's post about zines here.

News From the Craft + Style Blogosphere: May 22, 2008

2008-05-22T15:28:00Z

Hey friends!

Here are some interesting posts that I collected from the last week. We've got swimwear, affordable artwork, facial hair in many humorous affectations, a human sized nest...need I say more to draw you in?!

Read on!

Gilbea has put together an awesome collection of Etsy swimsuit options for summer. Good stuff!

Outsapop Trashion is a fantastic blog with tons of inspirational how-tos and observations on fashion and innovation. This zipper collar is so avant garde and sleek, and an amazing reuse of old zippers. (You can check out her process in this flickr set.) This is trashion at its best! [Via DIY City Guides]

Hess & Hodi is a really great blog. Their mission statement states that they are a "virtual gallery dedicated to showcasing affordable (generally under $300) works of art. We curate our way through the affordable art sludge so you don't have to." They have such great taste, as this piece by burntcucumber can attest.

Now this — this is something to talk about. Dutch artist Benjamin Verdonck has constructed a human-size nest on the side of a building in Rotterdam constructed out of "the crowns of twenty-three silver birches, one birch, one willow, two straw bales, one bucket of spit, three bags of sand, twelve buckets of glue, and nineteen cans of polyurethane foam." Let's hope he doesn't get evicted. [Via Apartment Therapy]

This one goes out to all the facial hair lovers out there. (I'm talking to you, Christine!) According to his site, John Dyer says that he has been "growing a beard every winter for some years now, and every spring, I try to see how many facial hair variations as I can check off from the chart of facial hair types." He's been able to successfully pull off 24 variations thus far! Check his blog to keep updated on what he'll do next. [Via Swiss Miss]

That's it for this week's edition of New From the Craft + Style Blogosphere. I'm really hurting for blogs to check, so leave your faves in the comments! You can also convo me to let me know if you've seen an interesting post out there on the interwebs!

Fix Up Your Ripped Jeans

2008-05-21T17:43:00Z

Last weekend as I was making the roof of my apartment into a squirrel-proof fortress, I ripped the knees of my jeans. After wearing the shredded dungarees around for the rest of the day, I decided I wasn't the type of guy who can rock the ripped denim. The jeans fit me perfect and it seemed such a waste to let them go, so I decided to fix them up. After some research I came up with this solution to my ripped jean dilemma.

MP4 | Subscribe in iTunes | Blip.tv | Youtube | HD

If you have a different way of reparing your jeans, leave a comment or even better, make a video about it, upload it to Youtube and post a link in the comments!

Do you like Etsy videos? Show your love and be the first ones to see them by becoming a youtube subscriber and setting up your iTunes to automagically download the latest videos.

Zines!

2008-05-20T17:27:00Z

Did you know there is a large zine community on Etsy? It's true! You don't have to go to a zine fest to get some awesome zines!

For those of you who might not be familiar with zines let me fill you in a bit. The word "zine" (pronounced "zeen") is abbreviated from "fanzine," short for "fan magazine." Zines started back in the day, like waaaay back in the day. Some people consider Benjamin Franklin a zinester! But more commonly zines are known for their Sci-Fi fandom origins.

Today there are tons of zines about tons of subjects and you can find oodles right here on Etsy. The best way to find out what a zines are all about is to jump into the world of underground publishing and start reading!

Further Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine
http://zinewiki.com
http://flickr.com/groups/zinesters
http://www.zinebook.com

There's even a Team Zine on Etsy!

Getting Started in Video: Camera Choices

2008-05-05T19:02:00Z

There is something special about video that you can't get from writing or photographs. Seeing someone on video is more personal. I really want to see more links to videos on the Etsy site, so I'm starting up this tutorial series to get you started making your own videos. Making videos gives the world a chance to see the personality and process behind the things you make.

Let's start with some super cheap cameras. If you're wanting to make video on a budget, you have a few options. The simplest option is to use what you've got. You may already have a video camera. Did you know that most digital photography cameras have a movie mode that takes great video? If you've got one of these, you're done looking, start shooting! A lot of time you can even set these to 640x480 resolution which is good enough to make great web videos. If you're buying something, the cheapest option is to use a flip camera. These are pretty inexpensive and they are easy to use. The resolution isn't fantastic, but they are small and light and easy to carry around and shoot things with.

If you're looking to step it up, the next level of video camera is a DV camera. You can find these for around 200-300 dollars. When you're looking for a camera, check to make sure that it's got a microphone jack and a headphone jack so that you can hook up an external mic and listen to the level of the sound as it's recording. Make sure your computer has a firewire port before getting one of these or you won't be able to transfer the video over.

If you're feeling fancy, you can get an HD camera. You can get a camera like the Sony HC1 which records HD video to DV tape (little mini digital video cassette tapes). But my recommendation is that you skip recording to tape. I'm in favor of using cameras that record straight to an SD Card, which is similar to the little card your digital still camera uses. If you've got somewhere between $600 and $1000 to spend, I'd recommend, the Sanyo Xacti HD2 which is a great little 720P camera or the Canon Vixia HF10. I've also played around with this Panasonic HSC1UP camera which is a bit more expensive, but has 3 chips in it which means the colors are a little snazzier. All of these record to SD cards. If you are going to be using iMovie (the video editing software that comes free with Macs), you'll want to get the Sanyo Xacti which records to an easily convertable MP4 format. The Panasonic and Canon SD cams both record to AVCHD which is a wonderful format allowing a lot of hi-res info to fit on a card, but it's not compatible with iMovie 7 at this time.

If you've got a serious budget and you're thinking about shooting broadcast HD, you can get the Panasonic HVX200. We shoot our Handmade Video Portraits on this. This is a professional level camera and it's awesome. There's a bit of a learning curve to dealing with P2 cards though, so be prepared to spend a day or two reading the manual.

A great place to go and learn more about cameras is creativecow.net. The forums there are really helpful and the community is great.

No matter what camera you get, I recommend getting an extra battery and separate battery charger. There is nothing worse than running out of batteries when you are shooting something special.

If a wide-angle lens is available for your camera, get it! I love wide-angle shots to be able to show lots of a room in your frame.

Again, the best thing to get started with is what you've got.

In the forums I asked for camera recommendations and got this message.

My next video is about tips for shooting video. If you've got an idea you can leave a comment, or leave a note in the forums or leave a message at 917-720-4197 and maybe I'll post it with the next video.

Etsy How-to: Make a Miniature Moustache

2008-04-18T16:43:00Z

This week, Christine (aka iheartmoustaches) breaks it on down and shows us how to use #6 plastic to create miniature moustaches! (Christine has made a bunch of these in the past, as she is a lover of the moustache in all its various forms.) #6 plastic is not recycleable in New York and so this is a great way to upcycle those strawberry containers and Chinese take out containers and keep them out of the landfill. This project is awesome for people who need a moustache on the go.

MP4 | Youtube | Blip.tv | Subscribe in iTunes

She's also open sourcing two of her moustache designs. You can download "The Professor" and "The Lady's Man" in this pdf!

We did some measuring and the moustaches started out 6 inches wide and ended up 2 1/4 inches wide. That means it shrunk to almost 1/3 its original size!

Music by Barry London

If you haven't subscribed to our Youtube channel, go check it out and subscribe!

For more how-tos and instructional good stuff, check out Howcast.com! We post videos there, and there's much more to discover!

EGCG | Trashion | EcoEtsy | Environmentally Friendly Gift Guides | Earth Tones Series

ThimbleScratch's Handmade Story: Video about her Eco-Approach to Making

2008-04-15T11:56:00Z

Thimble Scratch makes clothing from old clothes, vintage fabrics and industrial remnants that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

Each unique clothing item is created through experimentation and creativity (from my own drafted patterns and designs) - not mass-produced in a sweatshop. Made from eco and 'green' materials, such as industrial remnants, recycled, vintage, organic, and rescued fabrics.

She made this little video about her approach to eco-making. Check it out!

EGCG | Trashion | EcoEtsy | Environmentally Friendly Gift Guides | Earth Tones Series

Handmade Weddings: A Last-Minute Article about My Last-Minute Wedding

2008-04-11T14:20:00Z

One last real wedding to sneak into the Handmade Wedding Series!

We were married last September in Virginia but procrastinated almost everything until maybe a month beforehand. Together we were working about 10,000 hours a week at Etsy and I was wearily navigating my way through the first trimester of pregnancy.

Inwardly, I was positive that if I ignored planning my wedding hard enough, a wedding fairy godmother would swoop down in a magical monsoon of glitter shimmer tulle and take care of everything for us somehow.

That actually did not happen. But, I am here to tell you that it is okay to have a wedding by the total seat of your pants. A really great wedding, even.

This is my husband, Peter. He also works for Etsy.

Like any little girl, I had always vaguely daydreamed of what my my wedding dress would someday look like. I did not daydream myself five and 1/2 months pregnant, however. We had gotten engaged in January and then just became a little too impatient. So, I designed and made my own super beautiful knocked-up wedding dress with a ton of help from Beni of Burdastyle. When I say "help" I actually mean that she sewed the entire dress for me while I whined about how difficult it all was. I have a phobia of sewing patterns and hadn't even attempted to make anything from one since Girl Scouts in 1986. It was a totally harrowing and last-minute experience and I actually used a stapler to hem it and handsewed the snaps in our hotel room the morning before the ceremony, but it cost me $80 and I still sort of resembled the ballerina princess fairy I knew I was inside.

Burdastyle is this clever website where you can download and print patterns and get sewing help and all kinds of other essential things for making your own fashion. Had Alchemy been around on Etsy last year I probably would have gone down that road and saved poor Beni from having to deal with me, though. A dress that hides, yet accentuates, a baby bump is definitely a custom request.

We got married in the Japanese Garden of Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia. Next to a waterfall. How ridiculous is that? The best part was I had never seen the place in my life and chose it on blind faith when the date was nearing and we had no location in mind. The week before the wedding I kept saying, Don't we need to get some flowers or something to, you know, decorate it?

And then when I finally saw it, it was like, Oh, duh, it's an insanely beautiful unicorniverse paradise already! Because it was outside next to a waterfall. Lesson learned: you can avoid the hassle of choosing flowers and stuff if you just hold the whole thing outdoors where it's lovely.

If you are trying to plan a wedding from five states away and not do anything except occasionally glance at the calendar and panic, then you'll definitely need a friend to coordinate it all for you. We had Almitra, who coordinates things for a living and was able to swiftly handle all of our crises. She found us a cake (made by a really sweet lady in central Virginia) and a caterer (an old friend of hers who owns a restaurant in Richmond) and a couple cases of champagne, all amidst me crying on the telephone about how tiredly pregnant I was and sending her IMs like PLS HELP EVERYTHING IS A SHAMBLES I AM CRYING.

Neither Pete nor I have a family minister or church and we were at a loss for an officiant who could legally marry us. Eventually we gave up on the legal part and convinced our friend Brooks to do the honors as he was "our most stately friend" and we thought he could convincingly lead the ceremony.

We actually got legally married a month and a half later at the City Clerk Office here in Brooklyn. Friends, if you're crunched for time, take my advice and just fake it.

Pete wrote our vows the night before the rehearsal and I bobby-pinned them into a vintage copy of Treasure Island. We googled wedding vows and then added a really long Rilke quote to pad it. The ceremony still only was about two minutes long because we were all very nervous and spoke too fast.

But the best part of our wedding was the reception.

We held a reception at our friend's, well, cement lot in Southside Richmond. It's called The Bike Lot, and a bunch of folks we know rent garage space to work on bikes or mopeds or whatever else out there, they have a bunch of homemade ramps and the whole space is covered in beautiful graffiti. So we basically invited everyone we knew to come and have a big sweaty drunken dance party barbeque with us.

Everyone had a really great time. Pictured above on the left are Pete's sister and brother, in the latter stage of drunkeness.

My best friend Luke had pulled a wedding band together for me and managed a few superb covers of songs by Jawbreaker and the Misfits, among others. We had two other friends play records and our first dance was to We Built This City by Starship.

Etsy customer support expert Lori Weaver joined in with vocals at one point. I think this was a Gorilla Biscuits song.

And for days afterwards, Pete's motto was "If you can't skate at your own wedding, when can you skate?"

Here is the top of our melted cake. The cake toppers were a gift from Pete's mom and dad. They had accidentally dropped and broken the foot off the bride figurine at an antique shop, and had been forced by the shop owner to buy them. Pete's mom glued the foot back on and mailed them to us as a gag, but I sort of loved their weird Precious Momentsesque charm.

Our friends had decorated the Bike Lot with a zillion paper airplanes and not much else, which was totally sweet and beautiful. Someone had found a tandem bicycle and tied cans and such to the back, and at the end of the day we rode off together while everyone flung glitter and the contents of their cups at us. And we lived happily ever after. The end!

Wedding Gift Guide | Wedding Category | Wedding Showcase | Handmade Wedding Series